Tag Archives: Mae Mollhagen

For those who follow this blog, you know that I have not completed the Elia piece yet. Her early history continues to be very elusive and I have some new leads I wish to follow up on before I post about her.

However, I have found a great deal about the other important woman in George Whittell Jr.’s later life: Mae Mollhagen. Mae was Whittell’s long-time secretary and companion. She was also allegedly his mistress. I saw allegedly because it was all from other people’s oral histories that we have this notion of their relationship. I have no actual proof; no diary or note marking her as more than a secretary and close friend of Whittell’s. Also keep in mind, all relationships have an ebb and flow to them, so their relationship most likely changed over time. I will leave it up to you, the reader, to define their relationship. No matter how it was defined, Mae was a major part of life at Thunderbird.

A screenshot from the Whittell Films. This is Mae and George walking near the Lodge, 1941. TLPS Archives.

Mae was born Milwaukee, Wisc. On May 3, 1895 to Arthur and Maggie Mollhagen, both of who were Canadian. She had two brothers and two sisters. Mae and her siblings grew up in Saginaw, Mich. Her sister Bessie was an artist and her other sister, Carmen, was a very well respected music teacher in the community. While I cannot find exactly when Arthur died, Maggie was head of the household living with children in the 1915 city directory of Saginaw. She is noted as a widow at this point. The boys would go on to move to their own homes. James, stayed in Saginaw. The eldest, Leo, fought in World War I.

Mae went to train to be a nurse at Allegheny Hospital in Pittsburg. After she finished her training, Mae returned to Saginaw and living with her mother and sisters. It is in the 1930 census that Mae starts shaving a few years off her age, something that would continue up until her untimely death. By this time she was a private nurse. In 1933 Mae takes her first trip to Hawaii by herself; a fairly large endeavor for a single woman at this time. It also speaks to her spend-thriftiness that she had the money to indulge in such an extravagance at this time, or perhaps her employer paid her fair, which would happen later on when she worked for Whittell. Mae also shaved off three years of her age on the ship’s manifest.

Then at some point around this time Mae meets George Whittell Jr. I certainly wish I had some document telling me how and when they met. My best guess is that since her travels to Hawaii were by ship that left San Francisco, it was during her time in the city before or after her departure the two met.

Mae, again from the films, 1941. TLPS Archives.

While I am not sure exactly when she started working for Whittell, Mae appears in the 1934 home film with Whittell at Furnace Creek. Then I have Mae in Nevada by 1936 as she is listed in the Reno roll of voters. Subsequently she appears in the 1940 census living at Lake Tahoe and working as a secretary for a “private estate.” Her age is listed as 39, rather than the 45 she was. Most notable is her listed income of $5,000+. Given inflation, today that would be a salary of over $84k.

In August 1952 I found her traveling with her mother, leaving Liverpool going back to NYC. I find this one of interest for a few reasons. Mae is listed as 57, putting her correct birth year back on mark, perhaps her 84 year old mother caught her fibbing. The other point of interest is that there is a stricken address of RF? ? Kings Mnt. Woodside California addresses (in other words, the Whittell estate address) and replaced with the Mollhagen address in Saginaw.

Mae is also found in the city directory for Redwood for several years, mostly at the Whittell estate. However, just like George and Elia Whittell, she keeps her Nevada residency.

According to most accounts, Mae traveled with Whittell as he went back and forth between his Woodside estate and Thunderbird Lodge. It is interesting that in the early Whittell films we see little of Mae, but more of Elia. That certainly changes as the films progress over time. Elia is almost absent and Mae is front and center. Mae’s nephew, Jimmy, even came to Incline Village and managed the Ski Beach campground for Whittell. Jimmy and his family stayed in Incline and were valued community residents, all four of their children graduated from Incline High School. In 1944, the newspaper the Nevada State Journal, it is listed the guests of Elizabeth Rose McLean and Ensign William Lewis, in which we can find both Mae Mollhagen and George Whittell, but not Elia. It is clear that Mae traveled with Whittell and was openly his companion.

The most tragic part about Mae’s story is her very untimely death. Driving back to Incline Village from Crystal Bay on the afternoon of September 1, 1954. According to initial reports, Mae was traveling at a fairly high rate of speed when she lost control of her station wagon after striking the soft sand of the shoulder and she overcorrected. It then collided with another car carrying a family of five. All five suffered some injuries, but all survived. The inquest into the accident showed the Mae was in the wrong lane and she died of multiple skull fractures when she was thrown from the vehicle. Witnesses stated that Mae had been traveling in the wrong lane for a while, had actually missed two other vehicles before hitting the one that would kill her. All the newspaper articles referred to her at Whittell’s secretary. By the time of her death, Mae had shaved off ten years from her age.

According to her nephew’s wife, Jimmy delivered the sad news to Whittell. The story goes that Whittell ordered specific organ music to be played over the loudspeakers at Thunderbird. Jimmy related to his wife that it was very loud and uncomfortable to listen to. A year later, Whittell brought Maggie out to go through Mae’s belongings. He also took her out on the Thunderbird yacht, the first time the yacht had been used in a very long time and perhaps the past time he went out on his boat.

Mae was buried with her sisters in the family plot in Saginaw. Maggie outlived all of her daughters, none of whom married and all died relatively young.

Mae’s damaged station wagon was brought to Thunderbird Lodge by Whittell where it stayed until around 2000, when it was erroneously removed.

The wreck of the station wagon on Thunderbird Lodge property. Date unknown. TLPS Archives.

This is just a brief history of Mae. There is a great deal more to her than what I wrote here, but I hope this gives you an idea about her. From oral histories that are in the archives, she was a very strong-willed woman who was meticulous. From listening to her brief interactions with Whittell on film that were captured, I would say that she was not the submissive type at all. The collection contains many letters from Whittell transcribed and signed by Mae; she clearly was his most trusted employee. Maybe someday some journal or letters of Mae’s will show up and give us more insight into this interesting woman and her time at Thunderbird?